Audience

Botany Discovery Weekend

During Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend on January 19, 20, and 21, join us for a three-day celebration of plants! Participate in hands-on activities and demonstrations, and mount your very own plant specimen to take home. Assist in pollinating some super-fast-growing flowers to ensure a new generation, and check out some living plants that survive on a diet of animals! Say hello to some of the Academy’s live animals that eat nothing but plants (Saturday 3:30 p.m., Sunday and Monday 11 a.m.). You can even learn about pollination in Outside In, our children’s discovery center.

Botany Discovery Weekend offers something for children and adults alike. Hear Academy botanists discuss everything from slime molds (Saturday 11 a.m.) to algae (Monday 3:30 p.m.) and even Philadelphia’s fascinating botanical history (Sunday 3:30 p.m.). You can also learn about the scientific side of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806), with a special focus on the hundreds of specimens that the explorers brought back with them and that now reside in the Academy’s herbarium (2 p.m. Saturday–Monday).

Be sure to bring your questions for our botanists! You’ll also have the opportunity to see actual specimens from the amazing collection, including specimens in the Special Exhibits Gallery collected by Meriwether Lewis.